Page 55 of A Conflict of Interest

“Do you have pajamas?” Veronica said once she came back out to join me again, and I blushed, ducking my head.

“Um… I actually didn’t think about that.”

“You could borrow some of mine, we’re the same size. Or—I mean—if you prefer, I can go drive to your house and pick them up. Or to the store, if you don’t want me going in your apartment. Just—whatever you like,” she said, her cheeks flushing a little, features scrunched. I laughed.

“Veronica, I’m not making you drive at midnight in the snow to buy me more pajamas! Um… if it’s no problem with you, I’d be very grateful if you let me borrow some.”

“Yeah. Of course. Anything you like. I mean, I have the ones you borrowed last time.” She winced. “Or anything else.”

Oh my god, she was so shy about me staying here. She was actually adorable like this. “I’ll go with the ones from last time,” I said, standing up. “Where are they? Or do you want to get them yourself so I don’t go digging through the skeletons in your closet?”

“Ah—I’ll grab them. Wait here. Far too many skeletons. Can’t even remember all their names.”

I leaned against the corner, smiling at her as she turned back towards the bedroom, and I said, “You remembered my nutcracker’s name just fine,” and she paused in the doorway.

“Well… it was just so catchy.”

“Mm. Rolls right off the tongue, indeed.”

She gave me a playful look even with her face flushed, and she said, “I am very skilled.”

I stopped, raising my eyebrows, a nervous sensation pulling taut in my chest. “Um… with your…?”

Veronica paled, wide-eyed, and she shook her head. “I mean—that wasn’t—sorry—I didn’t mean it like—” She put a hand over her face. “I meant with names… remembering things, and… okay, let me stop digging this hole and grab you an outfit.”

She was adorable like this, but—she really didn’t want even alittlecommentary about how good she was with her tongue?

I was being a creep. But maybe I didn’t care anymore! Veronica was—at least ostensibly—making a move on me. She’d said she was interested. And I… wanted… well, I wanted her. In all kinds of ways.

So I guess it was just my stubborn streak that had me in the bathroom, getting changed into the cute satiny lavender pajamas that I wore once in another lifetime—and given how Veronica had taken me every single time I wore these pajamas, it stirred something even more in me—so I just said screw it, buttoned up the shirt, and went without the pants. I liked sleeping without pants on anyway. I had my chest out and my chin up a little, even with my heart beating faster, as I stepped out of the bathroom and saw Veronica on the couch back at her laptop, tapping away, and she looked up and stopped, her hand hovering over her keyboard, staring at me with her lips parted for one crucial second before she caught herself.

“Hi—something wrong with the pants, or just feeling like going without tonight?”

I shrugged. “Just felt like this. It’s nice this way. You have an extra toothbrush, right?”

“Uh—yeah.” She stood up, scratching her head, barely even looking at me. “I think so, anyway. Let me grab one.”

She had one, turned out. In lavender, even, to match the pajamas. Like it was meant to be. She took the pajama pants back shyly and left me to brush my teeth, and once she’d finished getting her makeup off and brushed her teeth too, changing into a Christmas-green pajama set, she stood in front of me and made an awkward noise in her throat.

“I, uh—I don’t have any clean sheets to change the bed into right now. I’d been procrastinating on my laundry for a bit.”

I puffed my chest out and smiled and said, “What, have you been doing a lot of dirty things with them?”

She missed a beat and said, “Well—I mean—sleeping in them. I can be pretty gross.”

Every comment she sidestepped was a challenge, and I rose to meet it. “Just sleeping?”

She shrugged, not looking at me. “Also lying there procrastinating on getting up…”

“Well, I imagine you’re planning on sleeping tonight, too, so it wouldn’t make a lot of different anyway, would it?”

She put her hands up. “Oh—I’m not—I was just going to sleep on the couch.”

I folded my arms. “You’re going to leave me to freeze? When I’m not wearing pants?”

“No, I—” Her eyes flicked down to my legs for an instant, and I took it as a win. “Do you want pants?”

“No, I want it to be nice and warm so I don’t have to wear them. C’mon, it’s not complicated!”

---